Alpha and Omega
“Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so, Amen. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” Revelation 1:7-8
The Apostle John was given the honorable task of writing the Revelation of Jesus Christ which gives us glimpses into the end times when Christ will return for His church. John wrote that Jesus will appear coming down from heaven in a cloud the same way that He ascended back to His Father after His resurrection (Acts 1:9). Jesus told His disciples that He would come “in the clouds of heaven with power and glory” in Matthew 24:30. In Daniel’s vision of Daniel 7:14, he saw “One like the Son of man come with the clouds of heaven.” What grander entrance can Christ make than riding upon a cloud of glory? When He entered Jerusalem before His crucifixion, He rode on a donkey. The people celebrated His entrance, praising God and exclaiming “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.” However, when Jesus returns, there will be a completely different reaction by those living at that time. Rather than welcoming Him with praises and tears of joy, people will wail with fearful voices knowing payday has arrived. There will be no where to hide, no acceptable excuses, no escape. Every eye will see Him. No one will miss His appearance.
All those who busily went about their lives with no concern for eternity and no desire to worship and honor the God of the universe nor His Son, Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords, will stop “dead in their tracks” and be filled with fear and dread. Those who had refused to listen to the witness of Christ followers will then realize that everything others had tried to tell them about repentance of sin and faith in Christ was true. Because they had rejected the gospel and Christ, all they will be able to do is to cry and mourn. Those who physically pierced Jesus at His crucifixion will be resurrected and face the One whom they had slain. They will also face judgment before God. Others who have pierced Jesus spiritually by their rejection of Him will also have to face Him and face judgment. In Zechariah 12:10, the prophet foretold of all those who will look upon Christ “whom they had pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one who mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.” They will become conscious of the holiness of God, and realize that it was their sin that brought about Christ’s suffering and death and will know that the heavy hand of judgment is about to fall upon them.
Those who will be judged by God for rejecting His Son had opportunity to know Him in the free pardon of sin all along. The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 1:19-28 that God had shown Himself to them throughout creation. He put a desire to worship within every heart. All man has to do is look around at the blue sky, the roaring sea, or into the face of a newborn baby and realize that these things just didn’t happen but were designed by a sovereign, all powerful Creator. However, they chose instead to worship themselves and/or any other creature or entity other than a holy God. God allowed them to go headlong into their sin, but He will still hold them accountable. They will have no excuse. As bad as it will be for all those who reject Christ, it must be this way. God was serious when He proclaimed that man must have no other gods before Him (Exodus 20:3). God’s mercy was displayed at the cross. His justice will be shown when Jesus returns. Even so, so be it.
Jesus said to John, “I Am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending…” Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet which expresses the eternal existence of God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. “In the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Jesus, as His Father is described in Revelation 1:4, is the One which is (present day), which was (in all ages past even before the world was created), and which is to come (riding on the clouds of glory as supreme Ruler and King, the Almighty God of the universe, a conquering Warrior who will judge the world and set things right.)
I remembered a discussion from many years ago between a Christian lady and a young man who claimed to be an atheist. He said that when he died, he would be just like a dog who died. In other words he had no hope of heaven nor fear of hell. The lady said to him, “If you are right and I am wrong, then I have nothing to lose by following Christ. But, if I am right and you are wrong, you have everything to lose.” I don’t remember him having an answer for that. The only right answer would be to fall on his knees and surrender his heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ. That was around 50 years ago when that statement was made. The lady has likely passed on to be with Jesus and her loved ones. I hope that the man, who was in his 20’s at the time, came to the place in his life where he repented of his sin and received Christ as Lord and Savior. Otherwise, when he meets Christ at his death, he will have no excuse. I think many folks do not take eternity very seriously. They get so bogged down in this earthly life that they fail to consider that this life is only temporary, like a tiny blip on the eternal radar, while eternity is forever.